......for me the front court players filling the huge gap left by Hass and KI are just not gonna be effective against certain teams this year.....I suppose the dominate guard play and relentless pressure on the ball perimeter defense will be enough to keep us in the post season mix.....Preston has got to get up to speed at this level, especially on the hostile road.....the bench Mikes appear to be just that and are development projects, at best, down the long road.....when heathy we knew what Hass would produce, some what the same in KI.....this year, the career nites needed by Akele, LG, and Berry are going to be few and far between......we were not going to be 29-0.....I am sure this discussion will evolve, but this years front court both sides of the ball is going to be our down side.....I believe they are what the are....

Positives: Jared Terrell came to play in the second half. I trust his overall game more than EC at this pointEC got the job done in the second halfAkele showed some toughness scrapping for loose balls and getting some second chance points Very early on in the game we were feeding the big guys on offense (both Andre + Cyril) Fatts looks special offensively - lightning quickness. He's going to be someone that opposing fanbases absolutely despise during his 4 year careerJarvis played well. Absolutely outplayed Dowtin in this one. Not many teams are willing to travel this early- a good experience for a team trying to fill the void of 2 key players

Negatives:We miss KI + Hass down low. In games like this we need a big with quickness. Ryan Preston has the body and athleticism - we need him to continue to grow in the noncon and be a solid contributor in A10 seasonFouls - some our fault some phantom calls and some swallowed whistles on the other end (EC + Terrell) that hurt usDowtin forced it - he also had some shots rattle in and out. He'll bounce back.

Other takeaways:It's hard to matchup against a team of 6'7 guys. Props to Nevada for putting together a really unique lineup with some past top 100 guysNevada will win a lot of games this year11:30pm tips on Monday night are not fun Nevada's court + uniforms were nothing to write home about

The development of Ryan Preston will determine our ceiling this year. We need a true PF to compete with the higher caliber teams we will face this year. He’s the only one we have. He has the physical tools let’s hope DH and staff can get him to be a 15-20 mpg role guy by time conference play rolls around.

We knew Nevada was going to be a tall order under the circumstances. With the loss of Martin and Iverson, we knew that URI's strong defensive effort would have to be re-built and if anything we learned from the Buffalo exhibition game and the Harvard scrimmage that our re-shaped defensive effort is not yet there. UNCA masked that fact since it was a smaller and less talented team. Nevada just showed that our new defensive effort is still a work in progress. We are unable to keep a talented team from drives to the basket without fouling. The solution is complex and in part requires a big improvement in Langevine's play and for Preston to quickly develop.

I didn't think the Ref's called the game in favor of Nevada, we just had more fouls. Quite a few offensive fouls driving the lane by EC, JT, JG, Dowtin. Nevada set up to take the charges. Some could have gone either way but they seemed to look to draw the offensive fouls - we do not set up to draw the offensive fouls very well - not yet anyway. I thought it was a clean pick by Martin on Terrell late, and announcers thought for sure it was clean. URI got a break there.

But the big difference was we could not stop Caroline inside. He drove in at will and always got his shots off. Nobody could slow him down or stop him, only way was to foul him. He was 7-13 FG, 12 rebounds, 14-17 FTs and 28 points. We made him look better than he really is.We had only 1 blocked shot in the game - a nice block on a break by Dowtin - but not a single block from any of our 4 big men.

Akele seemed to play the most physical inside, getting into the mix, and I am not saying he was really physical, but at least he was in the action, fighting

The loss of Martin and Iverson was evident. They block shots, intimidate players from driving inside, they alter shots, they get in the opponents head with their height, length, timing for blocking shots. Some thought Langevine was ready to step in and lock up one of the forward spots. No big at this time is approaching Martin or Iverson. As other teams view this game, and they will, they will adjust their game plan to be similar to Nevada.

Preston has tools but it always bothers me that he did not start on his JUCO team - so why should I really have high expectations for him? He only got 6 minutes of action last night - in a game that we clearly needed a stopper for Caroline and the Martin twins. DH gave him only 6 minutes. Not sure he did anything last night that made me think DH will give him more minutes soon.

At this point I'd probably give Akele more minutes. He wasn't great last night, but neither were Berry, Langevine or Preston.

I think Russell played well for a Freshman and earned more minutes in the future, Garrett also played well and earned more minutes. Not sure Russell doesn't end up as a starter before A10 play begins.

EC 7-17 and 2-7 on 3's but glaring were the 4 TOsJT 8-16 and 3-6 on 3'sJD 1-9 FGs, 3 rebounds, 6 assists and a team high 34 minutes. Not one of his better games but looks like DH has confidence in him given the 34 minutes. With that many minutes he has to put up better shooting stats.

I've had my coffee, so I'm moving on from last night/this morning. The Rams have a full week to prepare for Holy Cross and to figure out the defensive holes. Offensively, our guards played pretty well, but I say figure out how to get Andre more involved and isolated because he's our only threat in the paint. Inside/outside offense is the best offense.

Jeff Dowtin made his mark last year protecting and distributing the ball. He did not take a lot of shots. He however seems to be looking for more offense this new season and appears to be forcing things.

He was 1-9 from the field and 1-3 from the stripe last night in Nevada. He was 6-8 from the field and 1-1 from the line vs UNCA. He was 1-11 from the field in the exhibition versus Buffalo. For these three games, he was 8-28 from the floor.

I think Jeff needs to be more selective with shots and more quickly realize when it is just not his night. If they are not going in, do not keep jacking them up.

Last year at this time Martin was getting beat down the floor by opposing teams front court members too. He was an alltime player and it happened to him. So what gives? why is the same thing happening two years in a row?

I've seen it last year and now in this game. It must show up in scouting. I think it stems from the fact that the whole team doesn't sprint back to protect the rim and the paint. Each player seems to only be concerned with getting close to the guy they are assigned to guard.

I don't understand what it is that makes this team jog around the floor like they have the whole thing figured out. They did the same thing in the OOC last year. Yes the front court didn't look great. I think help defense would go a long way with this team. Very individual oriented game last night. Bright spots were there. But bright spots aren't good enough for this team. Too much experience. Russell looks the most like a leader out there.

They shouldn't look like a team that is finding its way to play together and show effort this far in their careers. It was also 11/13/17 for Nevada. Not like they played 10 more games. How can you expect Langevine to not foul out when Terrell a senior leader fouls out from the guard spot. Terrell got a foul after he didn't rebound and his man ran past him, got the ball, and Terrell lunged to hit the guy before he layed it in. No excuse.

The whole team didn't rebound with any regard for the opposing teams players. Poor angles and no leverage in trying to gain position. We saw glimpses of how the game is played last night. For some reason IMHO Dan Hurley teams have struggled to rebound. Iverson was a savant on the glass. Hes gone. Not good. Not good at all.

FWIW Preston had 4 rebounds in 6 minutes of action.Berry and Langevine had combined 7 rebounds in 36 minutes of action.Berry cannot rebound outside of his position, i.e. if the ball doesn't fall to where he is he cant go get it.

Sticking to my POV on this, Preston's development will make or break us. Him and Langevine could be a formidable paint presence with their strength and athleticism, but clearly he has a lot of development to do to earn time from DH. Hoping that happens.

Rhody Dude wrote:Anyone know why we don't use layssard or tertsea? Feel like they should get more chances rather than sit the bench, especially if cyril is going to foul out in every game.

......have to say their project development stage is progresssing on schedule......not ready for any significant minutes this year.....unless of course injuries force either one into more minutes....no?

TruePoint wrote:I hope we don't see sky is falling stuff. In my opinion that is probably the hardest game on our schedule, unless we get UVA in the Garden.

What sucks is, as usual, we lose the "hardest game on our schedule". Lots of ball to go, but it would've been nice to win the "hardest game on our schedule"...sigh.

We are 9 days away from our hardest game on the schedule

I don't think playing Seton Hall in a neutral venue in our time zone will be nearly as difficult of a game. I'm also not convinced that Seton Hall is a much better team than Nevada, if at all. I'm not taking anything away from Seton Hall or making any prediction about the outcome of that game, but if I am ranking the games, I think the Nevada game is the hardest. There is the fact that Nevada is just very good - they will be a top-20 team, I predict - along with it being a true road game, it being played in the middle of the night in terms of our guys' body clocks, etc.

RI_Bred - how many teams win the hardest game on their schedule? Not many, I'd guess. This wasn't a "same ol Rhody" game losing to a decent Houston team. Nevada is legit, and I thought we battled pretty well. Lots of woulda, coulda, shouldas from last night, and I do think we are as good as Nevada and could get them as much as they get us if we played them a dozen times, but last night they were better. It happens, it'll happen probably another half dozen times or so this year.

I guess we can forget the talk of Hurley using zone more often. A game where URI was getting killed down low and the bigs were in four trouble was the perfect time for a zone.Ramster: i can't see a scenario where Fatts starts. Instead of Dowtin and Jarvis at PG?The refs weren't great but URI fouled too much at home in the first game, too. Team needs to learn to play D without hacking.

2 x

"Every season, college basketball has one or two teams that rise from dormancy to relevancy, squads that make long-awaited charges at the NCAA Tournament and become really fun storylines along the way."

RIFan wrote:Preston had modest Juco Stats...realistically, how much are you really expecting him to improve and be a factor at this level?

.....enough to make significant impact filling the void left in the front court, not so much from prior stats but a body, physical presence, sticks his nose in their, attitude, role player, etc that fits the DH style of play......

rambone 78 wrote:TP, true if the game was here we probably would have won.....not sure they are top 20 material though.

Idk, they have 3 really good, big, athletic, physical players and a few other pretty good players, and their schedule is not incredibly challenging. I think they could win 26+ regular season games, and I predict they will spend a lot of the year ranked.

^one thing that is definitely "same ole Rhody" is we have some bad fans.

Lots of college basketball teams lose close road games against tough opponents, man. In fact, all of them do. Nothing uniquely Rhody about that except our fans' insufferable habit of wallowing in misery about it. You play good teams on the road and you're going to lose a lot of those games; they wouldn't be good wins unless they would also be understandable losses.

RI_Bred wrote:What sucks is, as usual, we lose the "hardest game on our schedule". Lots of ball to go, but it would've been nice to win the "hardest game on our schedule"...sigh.

We are 9 days away from our hardest game on the schedule

I don't think playing Seton Hall in a neutral venue in our time zone will be nearly as difficult of a game. I'm also not convinced that Seton Hall is a much better team than Nevada, if at all. I'm not taking anything away from Seton Hall or making any prediction about the outcome of that game, but if I am ranking the games, I think the Nevada game is the hardest. There is the fact that Nevada is just very good - they will be a top-20 team, I predict - along with it being a true road game, it being played in the middle of the night in terms of our guys' body clocks, etc.

RI_Bred - how many teams win the hardest game on their schedule? Not many, I'd guess. This wasn't a "same ol Rhody" game losing to a decent Houston team. Nevada is legit, and I thought we battled pretty well. Lots of woulda, coulda, shouldas from last night, and I do think we are as good as Nevada and could get them as much as they get us if we played them a dozen times, but last night they were better. It happens, it'll happen probably another half dozen times or so this year.

calling Seton Hall at MSG neutral is in name only, and a bit facetious. that's as neutral as us playing a game at The Dunk.

TruePoint wrote:I hope we don't see sky is falling stuff. In my opinion that is probably the hardest game on our schedule, unless we get UVA in the Garden.

What sucks is, as usual, we lose the "hardest game on our schedule". Lots of ball to go, but it would've been nice to win the "hardest game on our schedule"...sigh.

"Hardest game on our schedule"? At Alabama? How about Seton Hall on a neutral court?

Addressed above. I think Nevada is as good as those teams, and I think that traveling to the west coast and playing a game in the middle of the night in your first true road game of the year creates a unique circumstance that differentiates this game from the ones you mentioned against similarly talented teams.

Nevada is likely to be a top 20 team because, like last year they're not going to lose a lot of games. I can't help but think though, that some teams are going to play different defensive styles against them that will work.

I liked the point seawright made where he said, the only thing we looked to do defensively was get right in front of our guy and press him. Then they drove in with their big guard bodies and we just reached and hacked them. Stan was the only guy who could stay in front of his guy from what I could tell. He guarded Caroline I think twice and neutralized him both times because he wasn't able to face him up and dribble on him.

Russell and Jarvis were the two best point guards for us. Jeff obviously struggled the most and he played the most minutes... I kinda like that he's trying to be more aggressive, but he was really forcing it and it hurt us.

Dan just seemed stubborn with his coaching last night as opposed to adjusting with the flow of the game. Maybe the players did a bad job of listening too, but I didn't think we would play like that being as old as we are, but I'm not too worried. They might've needed something like this. Adjusting to life after KI and Hass.

Wasn't a good matchup for us.....that didn't help...where other teams strengths are our weakness, we will struggle.

As for playing D without hacking...watch other teams who play good D without fouling....they use their bodies and good footwork to stay in front of offensive players...we use our hands way too much and that will get you called for a foul almost every time.

This also is nothing new...Dan's teams have done that since he's been here....I know he's supposed to be a defensive guru, but his teams don't adhere to those defensive principles. We clutch and grab too much.

But it's not the same ole Rhody story, they re-wrote the narrative last season with a run through the A10 tourney and two ncaa games. It's a tough loss to a tough team on their home court. Our starting front court graduated and Nevada has an excellent front court. We stayed in this game, didn't get deflated. I'm ok with getting our challenges on the road, in a different time zone, if it strengthens the team in the end. Like Temple of old, they killed themselves with rough ooc schedules but sliced up the A10 and advanced to the NCAA's routinely. What we can't have is 0 tough road wins, but there is plenty of season to go so let's see how it unfolds.

Don't let a tough loss to a good team on the road keep anyone from showing up to the game Sunday!!I still have Rhody scheduled to go back to the dance this season.

RIFan wrote:Preston had modest Juco Stats...realistically, how much are you really expecting him to improve and be a factor at this level?

.....enough to make significant impact filling the void left in the front court, not so much from prior stats but a body, physical presence, sticks his nose in their, attitude, role player, etc that fits the DH style of play......

We don't need gaudy stats from him...we need rebounding, defending the rim and a few dunks. That's it. And I think he is capable of that.

Da_Process_Survivor wrote:We are 9 days away from our hardest game on the schedule

I don't think playing Seton Hall in a neutral venue in our time zone will be nearly as difficult of a game. I'm also not convinced that Seton Hall is a much better team than Nevada, if at all. I'm not taking anything away from Seton Hall or making any prediction about the outcome of that game, but if I am ranking the games, I think the Nevada game is the hardest. There is the fact that Nevada is just very good - they will be a top-20 team, I predict - along with it being a true road game, it being played in the middle of the night in terms of our guys' body clocks, etc.

RI_Bred - how many teams win the hardest game on their schedule? Not many, I'd guess. This wasn't a "same ol Rhody" game losing to a decent Houston team. Nevada is legit, and I thought we battled pretty well. Lots of woulda, coulda, shouldas from last night, and I do think we are as good as Nevada and could get them as much as they get us if we played them a dozen times, but last night they were better. It happens, it'll happen probably another half dozen times or so this year.

calling Seton Hall at MSG neutral is in name only, and a bit facetious. that's as neutral as us playing a game at The Dunk.

RIFan wrote:Preston had modest Juco Stats...realistically, how much are you really expecting him to improve and be a factor at this level?

.....enough to make significant impact filling the void left in the front court, not so much from prior stats but a body, physical presence, sticks his nose in their, attitude, role player, etc that fits the DH style of play......

We don't need gaudy stats from him...we need rebounding, defending the rim and a few dunks. That's it. And I think he is capable of that.

And he has 9 rebounds in 18 minutes in the 2 games. Cyril has 6 in 34 minutes. Andre has 5 in 34 minutes. Dan seems to have a quick hook with Preston. If he's out of position on defense, Dan pulls him right away. I guess he's going to have to earn Dan's trust to get more PT. We need him.

Cyril was a monster on the glass at times last year. He just needs to worry about staying on the court and the rebounds will come. Completely agree about Preston, though. Looks the part, and in limited action has been basically what I expected, which is someone who I think should have a role on this team.

RI_Bred wrote:What sucks is, as usual, we lose the "hardest game on our schedule". Lots of ball to go, but it would've been nice to win the "hardest game on our schedule"...sigh.

"Hardest game on our schedule"? At Alabama? How about Seton Hall on a neutral court?

Addressed above. I think Nevada is as good as those teams, and I think that traveling to the west coast and playing a game in the middle of the night in your first true road game of the year creates a unique circumstance that differentiates this game from the ones you mentioned against similarly talented teams.

Nevada is not the toughest game on the schedule, come on. They are a very good team who can make noise come March, yes. But Seton Hall, Bama and Providence are tougher games. TP, I think you're really undervaluing Seton Hall. The group of Delgado, Carrington, Powell and Rodriguez is no joke. Angel Delgado puts up double-doubles like it's nothing. If our big men can't muscle up, he will have a field day vs URI.

I do love how tough the OOC schedule for the Rams is though. Any loss to Nevada, Seton Hall, Bama, or PC isn't a bad loss and won't have a significant impact on the tournament resume. Obviously wins look great but a loss isn't going to hurt as long as it's competitive. These types of games will only benefit the team come February & March.

I've tried to say that I know Seton Hall is very good and I have a lot of respect for them, but I just really was impressed with what Nevada has last night.

I knew going into the game Nevada was good and had brought in a lot of good players, but I said I wasn't sure what to make of them because I hadn't seen them. Now that I've seen them, I'm very impressed. I don't know that Nevada is better than Seton Hall or would beat them on a neutral court, but adding up everything, I'd rather play Seton Hall on a neutral floor a couple states over at a waking hour than Nevada in their gym on the other side of the country in the middle of the night.

section(105) wrote:.....enough to make significant impact filling the void left in the front court, not so much from prior stats but a body, physical presence, sticks his nose in their, attitude, role player, etc that fits the DH style of play......

We don't need gaudy stats from him...we need rebounding, defending the rim and a few dunks. That's it. And I think he is capable of that.

And he has 9 rebounds in 18 minutes in the 2 games. Cyril has 6 in 34 minutes. Andre has 5 in 34 minutes. Dan seems to have a quick hook with Preston. If he's out of position on defense, Dan pulls him right away. I guess he's going to have to earn Dan's trust to get more PT. We need him.

Based on how the other bigs have played, I think we need more than some rebounds and dunks...That's what you hope for from your end of the bench bigs...and ours can't get off the pine.

Still wondering why Dowtin played 34 minutes,while everyone and his mother,was yo-yoingin and out of the game, all night?Speaking of Seton Hall, the idea of Delgado againstour frontline, is a scary one.Big, tough, old school, post player.Hurley obviously has zero faith in Laysard and Tertsea.Our frontline looks to be a problem, for many reasons.Our best one is wildly foul prone, our best offensive guy can't guard.That leaves Preston, who only merited 6 minutes,in a game where all hands on deck were needed up front.OOC games will be a problem, with opponents with size.

Rod, have to think Dowtin was given those minutes due to their general size in the back court and primarily for defensive purposes, because Jarvis was playing well and Jeff wasn't hitting the side of a barn (he did have team high 6 assists).

Like last year I think this team is going to take some time to gel, a lot is being asked of a sophomore big who was played sparingly last season and behind 2 great big men, and a senior big that hadn't played 100 minutes in his career here. Add a Juco clearly with a big learning curve on how Dan wants to play D, and you have a steep development curve for our front line.

All that said, still loved our grit last night and if not for a desperation 25 foot three pointer going down that game was going down to the last possession. In Hurley I trust, not wavering there. On to the next one.

Delgado is an absolute problem for us. I think the best way to combat him is to make him guard. Ensure he is part of every play in defending us and the fouls will come. Could have worked last night. Just slow the guy down.

Clear we are a team of talented guys. Just frustrating that they let these opportunities get away. Very similar to last year. Just then people had faith in the front court when they got beat good. So they should be fine going forward, but they only play so many games and they didn't come out competing in this one. Disheartening.

Tough game last night. Nevada is a good team and playing at 11:30 eastern time after travelling cross country was no easy task.

A lot of good comments in this thread. My main concern is with Langevine. For us to be the team we all hope for, he needs to be much better than he has been in the first 2 games. After the way he played down the stretch last year and in the NCAA tournament as a freshman, I was expecting big things from him this year. He is off to a very rough start. He needs to pick up his play or this team will struggle mightily against teams with any decent size.

One pet peeve from last night. I will never understand not doubling a player that it is clear that your team cannot handle one on one. This happened last year against Valparaiso as Alec Peters essentially beat us last year, and we did not double him once last year in that game. Make somebody else beat you.

Same thing last night with Nevada's big guy. I know one time they did double him, and he found an open guy for a layup but I would have done it until proven otherwise that it was not a good strategy. Playing him straight up one on one certainly was not working. He was not your typical big, but you still could have run a second player at him to get the ball out of his hands.

And the turning point for me in that game last night was that crazy three point shot hit by one of the Martin twins with just over 2 minutes left. Was a 3 point game at that time and that pushed it to 6.

We got beat by a good team on the road by seven points, with them getting 26 more free throws than us AND them getting the good fortune of some lucky three pointers right at the end. With that being considered and how sloppy we played...we still hung in all game and had an opportunity. If that game is called even, we win. Frustrating, but not concerned.